People who pitched tents in Dottie Harper Park in Burien, a mere 25 yards from children’s play equipment, were told to move along by noon Tuesday, but were still milling about well into the afternoon.

Burien police officers were going tent to tent, asking them to pack up or if they needed help to move.

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“I feel like a lot of people are not leaving,” said Stephanie Tidholm, a social worker with REACH.

Tidholm is among several outreach workers who’ve been trying to help people living in tents in Burien find the help they may need, whether that’s some sort of housing, mental health help, addiction treatment, or job training.

“I think people are really frustrated. It’s this moving them around everywhere and at this point they just want to see what happens if they don’t move,” said Tidholm.

Tidholm told KOMO News that there just aren’t any shelter beds they qualify for in Burien (none in this camp have children) and the shelters in Seattle, she said, all have extremely long wait lists.

Many packing up in the park also don’t want a shelter bed. One young man, packing up his belongings from tents, told KOMO that he’d rather be in a tent than in a shelter because the shelters make him feel like he’s in jail by dictating a time to eat dinner and when lights must be off for the night. He didn’t’ say where he’d be going, but that he was working on packing up.

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KOMO also talked with Storm Chandler, with Mothers Grab and Go, also working to help people in the park.

“We’re trying to get them housing. We’re trying to get them into the homeless program. We’re trying to get them connected with paid training or mental health services, any addiction services. We want to make sure they’re safe, in a comfortable place and not just moving from place to place,” said Chandler.

Chandler said her group found just three shelter beds for men and only one for a woman today. A woman in one of the tents agreed to take that single bed in a women’s shelter, but hours after saying that, Chandler was still waiting in the park for that woman to come out.

Chandler said everyone just needs to show love and patience.

“I’ve been turned down today and then I’ve had people come back and say well, let me think about it. Let me talk with you,” Chandler said. “A lot of them don’t want to do the shelter. Some of them are addicted to drugs. They want someone to just give them a hand and just show them.”

KOMO News asked for an interview with City Manager Adolpho Bailon and was told that he was not available today.

When asked if the city’s providing any other space for people to go, spokesperson Emily Inlow-Hood responded with “not at this time”. Her email to KOMO said that the city council at its meeting last night asked city staff to prepare information about short and long-term options for them to discuss.

Inlow-Hood also wrote "our staff and human services partners are always working to connect people to shelter and services, throughout our city. We face the same challenges that other cities in our region face in terms of housing, shelter, and health services.”

KOMO asked the social workers and outreach helpers in the park if they think the city should do more.

“Yes. Yes I definitely do,” said Chandler.

“The City Council went back-and-forth with their meeting trying to come up with a resolution, but they can’t agree on a plan,” said Tidholm.